How to Create Effective Company Policies

Transcript

Introduction

Hi, I'm Regina Campbell with The Campbell Law Group, and we're coming today to talk to you a little about another how-to series. Today we've selected a topic within the business law realm, also considered employment law, but for the most part a lot of this is involved within business law. It's basically how to create effective company policies. They wrote it on the board for me to make sure that I would get it right, and I still had to look. But in any case, we will talk about effective policies, and I'll help you put them together. That's what this series is about. Hopefully we're going to give you some ideas on how to do so.

Know what your company needs

Every company is different. So the first thing we want to think about when we're creating effective company policies is what policies, specifically, your company needs. Are you a large company? Do you have hundreds of employees? In which case you want to also consider an employment handbook that encompasses numerous company policies that talk about everything from workman's comp, what to do in harassment, what kind of uniforms you're supposed to wear, disciplinary measures, the FMLA, the Family Medical Leave Act, and other potential acts that will apply to a company of that size.

So that's rule number one. You want to pick out what type of company you are. What do you need? What does your specific company need? You may also be a company that has heavy equipment, a construction company or some other type of business that has heavy machinery. Also, if you are a digital company, you want to consider not just safety and data protection policies, but also policies related to privacy and using your computer for personal use. You want to think about a couple of other things, and potentially also limit what people might be able to do internally, for fear of data theft and other things that might be going on.

New laws as your company grows

There's also another consideration, and we touched upon it a little bit before: as your company grows, you need to be cognizant that additional acts may potentially apply to you. For instance, at certain points other acts may govern your company, such as the American Disabilities Act, in which case you should create a policy for that as well, indicating how the company will attempt to accommodate any person with a disability, and basically walk through the procedures and the requirements of what the act requires the employer to do.

Of course, there are some things that an employer can do that are not required by law. It's just what they choose to do. They might choose to give someone additional leave, or additional paid time off. Some companies recognize lunch breaks. I know that sounds funny, but in Florida it's not necessarily required. Some will pay you for lunch sometimes. Some will pay you not just for jury duty or bereavement, but they may actually pay bereavement beyond your initial family, even for extended family deaths.

So there are different policies. Different strokes for different folks, so to speak. It really depends not just on what the law requires, but also on what your company has offered your employees, and the type of environment and benefits that it's creating.

Overtime and hourly wage policies

To give you a couple of examples of some simple policies, and the way to create them effectively, that are contained in most companies' policies, or should be: for instance, an overtime or hourly wage type policy describing how you figure out time worked. Upon clocking in, you are paid through lunch hour. Or: you're relieved during lunch hour and you should leave your desk during lunch hours, since you're not going to be paid if you remain working during lunch. We will pay you if you work more than 40 hours. We are going to be paying hourly employees overtime wages at time and a half.

You also want to include those type of policies where the employee needs to seek permission in writing before working any overtime hours. So you put the onus on the employee to request that, so it's not a free-for-all, which unfortunately does happen sometimes, particularly when you have remote workers. You want to put a little bit of parameters and guidance there. In that case you can also hold an employee to that policy if they haven't done it, and they come to you and say, "Wow, you haven't paid my overtime for three weeks." You can say, "Well, we weren't even aware that you worked overtime. The policy is you're required to seek approval to work overtime in writing beforehand."

I still would recommend you pay an employee if they say they are working, depending on the circumstances. You want to weigh this out. In situations where an employee circumvents the policy but actually did work, you're still required to compensate them. But you might want to give them a warning and tell them they're not allowed to do that again. They did violate a policy.

Defining tardiness

You also want to show what tardy is. Is it that you're not at your desk ready to work exactly at nine o'clock? Or do you give them a leeway: you have to be ready to work at your desk by 9:05, and anytime after that is considered tardy? You may say, "Wow, that really sounds very nuanced, a lot of minutiae." But it can make a difference if you have to take disciplinary action with an employee and say, "You're always late." Well, what is late? What is tardiness? "I'm sitting at my desk at nine o'clock," but maybe they're not even ready to go until 9:30. You're going to have a hard time holding them accountable unless you have a policy that's very specific to address those needs.

Workman's comp and safety procedures

Other examples of things you may want to have, of course, are a workman's comp policy or instructions, which might also be contained within the safety policies or procedures. For instance, depending on whether you're a biotech company or some type of heavy machinery company, indicate the policies. Maybe look at industry norms and see what safety procedures should be followed before they commence work, what kind of preparation work should be done, and what kind of equipment they should be wearing. Limit where they can go unless they're wearing the equipment.

These type of things you want to make sure to put into a policy, leaning on industry norms, of course, or other guidelines that have been put together. OSHA is also very good for these type of recommendations. You can create a company policy that suits your particular company's needs and how your company operates, including your employees.

A lot of times the workman's comp information will be in there, so that your employee knows how to file a workman's comp claim, and also knows the procedures for reporting injuries. For serious injuries especially, immediately call 911, and a supervisor must be told. So there's a procedure in place for how to handle those type of circumstances, and it's not chaos if something should occur. Unfortunately, that can cause an employee further injury, or someone else to be injured, or something to get missed that could have been avoided. So it's important to have these policies in place, and I think your employees will appreciate it as well when they have some guidance in these areas.

Computer security and data policies

Other examples of effective policies that are usually needed with companies are computer security and data policies. It's very important to work with your IT professional, whether internal or external. Talk to them about the different levels of employees that you have. Managers might need a certain level of access. Certain employees need a certain level of access to parts of client information or sensitive information, but not to everything a manager may need. And you may have someone more administrative who only needs access to the documents they may be assisting, for instance, their officer or their vice president with, or someone they're aiding. They don't need access to the entire company's file information.

This is also very important for keeping security protocols together, so that if someone does steal data, you can show that you attempted to implement protocols and procedures to protect the data, because it was sensitive at different levels. This will help with any kind of misappropriation of trade secrets or company information type of lawsuits. It'll also limit the ability of someone who phishes and comes through someone's account to access all aspects of the company's data and information.

Also have a phishing policy in place that basically requires the employee to immediately report if they think they touched or hit a link that they shouldn't have, or something looks weird, and to immediately follow up on it. It's very important to catch these things timely, as unfortunately a lot of companies are learning nowadays.

Leave, contractors and non-competes

So these are some examples. Like I said earlier, if you're a larger company, you might have a Family Medical Leave Act policy in place. You might describe what type of injuries, family circumstances or illnesses actually qualify for leave under that act, how it works, how you tabulate when you can leave, the procedure for notifying the employer that you're going to need to take this type of leave, and your rights. There are also other types of acts that will apply, and having these policies will allow employees to have more clarity and transparency, and create a better environment in general for your employees and for you as a company.

Also keep in mind that a lot of these policies might actually apply to vendors or independent contractors. That might include non-solicitation policies and non-competes, which of course can also apply to employees, although there's a new executive order out that is somewhat intended to limit non-competes. At this time it's not clear to what effect or to what extent that's going to take place. I'm sure it's probably going to be challenged in the courts.

However, I still recommend you use a non-compete where necessary. Do not restrict employees who do not need to be restricted from working if they leave your company. Usually non-compete and non-solicitation provisions are really to protect something that you've created, with your own blood, sweat and tears, and that cannot easily be obtained by somebody else. It's created by you paying an employee to create it, or to go find out the particular nuances of clients, or methodologies for software, whatever it may be. So we want to be judicious, so to speak, when we use those type of provisions, but they are important to have.

Company property and work for hire

Return of property is also important to have: make it clear what property belongs to the company. Also, if you're hiring any independent contractors or employees who do intellectual property, you want to make sure you have work-for-hire provisions, so to speak, that make it clear who owns the rights to anything that's been created. People automatically assume that if they just pay someone to do a creative or artwork or anything of that nature, they own the product, and that may not be the case. Of course, always look carefully at any kind of contract that you're signing as well, to make sure that the opposite default is not in place, where the artist basically retains the rights to the works, if you're intending to purchase all the intellectual property with the work that you're paying for.

Review your policies every year

So those are a couple of tips. Hopefully they're helpful to help you create effective company policies. More than anything, you need to know your company. And you also have to keep in mind that you have to check these at least once a year, to make sure these policies do not need to be updated, and that you do not need new policies, whether because of a change in law or a change in clients, employees, patterns, anything of that nature. A company is definitely a living thing that grows, expands and contracts, and it needs to be watched over to make sure that things still make sense, so to speak, and fit.

So hopefully this has been helpful. I want to thank you for joining us here today. If you haven't seen any of our other how-to series or podcasts, please go take a look at our YouTube channel and become a subscriber. Hopefully there are other how-to series, or even podcasts, that might be helpful. We also welcome you to become a subscriber of our Apple Podcasts site, and we hope you will join us on our social media network for the latest information on business and family law matters. I want to thank you again. Thank you so much.